Focus: Ebola

Children's Ebola Recovery Assessment: Sierra Leone

Closure of schools as the issue of primary concern

World Vision To date, there has not been a formal process for children to outline their own priorities for recovery to decision-makers. In mid-March 2015, child-centred agencies conducted a Children’s Ebola Recovery Assessment (CERA) in nine districts across Sierra Leone to create a mechanism for more than 1,100 boys and girls, to discuss issues of concern; assess the impact of the crisis on their roles, responsibilities and future opportunities; and to formulate their recommendations for recovery. The findings of the CERA powerfully demonstrate the diverse and interconnected impact of the outbreak for children living through the Ebola crisis in Sierra Leone

One year into the Ebola epidemic: a deadly, tenacious and unforgiving virus

WHO One year after the first Ebola cases started to surface in Guinea, WHO is publishing this series of 14 papers that take an in-depth look at West Africa’s first epidemic of Ebola virus disease. (Bild: UNMEER/Martine Perret)

WHO wieder stärken

Die Ebolaepidemie bringt es an den Tag

MMS The director of the Network Medicus Mundi International and the director of the Network Medicus Mundi Switzerland have published for the Swiss sunday paper, "NZZ am Sonntag" a small piece on the failure of WHO in the Ebola response. In German only.

Role of Switzerland in containing Ebola Outbreak in West Africa

African Mirror Interview with Ambassador. Manuel Bessler, Head Humanitarian Aid (SDC) on how Switzerland has reacted in containing Ebola Outbreak so far. The interview was made by the Swiss based African Mirror Foundation at 22 October 2014.

Overcoming Ebola – why we need to be in it for the long haul

International Health Policies "After the crisis, lessons will be learned, or not. For this Ebola outbreak, we cannot wait until the crisis will be over. The international community has to decide now whether it will provide the caregivers of Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone the bare minimum to protect themselves while risking their lives to save others – decent training and quality protective wear for a start – and the perspective of a job in a functioning health system after the crisis. Someday, this Ebola outbreak will be over, and the international health community, together with the governments of the affected countries, will have to face up to the arduous and long overdue task of restoring people’s trust in the health system," writes Gorik Ooms in an article for IHP.

Ebola and Beyond

Fresh air for the Framework Convention on Global Health

Project Syndicate Project Syndicat has published a piece by Lawrence O. Gostin with some interesting thoughts on Ebola. WHO should commit to an emergency contingency fund that it could deploy for surge capacity as soon as it declares a “public health emergency of international concern.” Besides this, Gostin points out the importance of health system strengthening and the need of supporting weak states by a Framework Convention on Global Health.

Health-system resilience: reflections on the Ebola crisis in western Africa

Editorial in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization

WHO "The last decade has seen increased external health-related aid to Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. However, in the context of Millennium Development Goals 4, 5 and 6, most of this aid has been allocated to combat human immunodeficiency virus infection, malaria and tuberculosis, with much of the residual going to maternal and child health services. Therefore, relatively little external aid was left to support overall development of health systems.5 This lack of balanced investment in the health systems contributes to the challenges of controlling the current Ebola outbreak. Weak health systems cannot be resilient.6–8 A strong health system decreases a country’s vulnerability to health risks and ensures a high level of preparedness to mitigate the impact of any crises," write the authors of WHO Bulletin's editorial in December 2014.